The primary source of resilience, as measured by coefficient of restitution (“COR”), in commercially available golf balls is polybutadiene rubber, which is generally used to form all or part of the core. It is known that the resilience of a golf ball core, at a given compression, may be increased by forming a core layer from a rubber composition comprising an organosulfur compound. However, organosulfur compounds can be expensive and can cause processing difficulties.
Thus, a desire remains in the golf ball industry for novel rubber compositions having high resilience at a given compression. The present invention provides such compositions and their use in a variety of golf ball core, cover, and intermediate layers.
Background references include, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,119 to Ladd et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,767,940 to Voorheis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,919,393 to Mano et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,956,128 to Higuchi et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0052253 to Fushihara et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,597 to Iwami et al.